London afternoon: Banks and miners retreat

25th Jun 2009 14:27

Leading equities drift lower in the afternoon session, led by banks and miners.Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered eases back, despite enjoying record income and operating profit in the first five months of this year. Some of this success has been offset by weakness in consumer banking, however, where income remains under pressure due to "liability margin compression and the impact of muted wealth management sales".Elsewhere in the sector HSBC and Lloyds Banking are the two worst performing blue-chips but Royal Bank of Scotland gets the thumbs-up from broker Cazenove, which has upgraded the stock from "underperform" to "outperform" in the belief that there is potential upside in the share price if the bank makes quicker progress than expected in de-risking. Merrill Lynch, meanwhile, has given a boost to Standard Life, raising the life assurance group from "neutral" to "buy", with a price target of 214p. The broker also likes Prudential, but has cut its price target for the Pru to 520p from 535p. Elsewhere in the sector Merrill Lynch has shaved its price target for Old Mutual to 65p from 70p.Lonmin, Kazakhmys, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are all stuck in the red as mining stocks lose favour. Elsewhere in the sector, the Times is reporting that Xstrata has stepped up its campaign to merge with Anglo American last night, taking its £41bn merger proposal over the heads of Anglo's board to its shareholders. BP has appointed Carl-Henric Svanberg, currently chief executive officer of Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson, to replace Peter Sutherland as chairman. Telecoms giant BT and India's Tata Communications will be sharing their huge resources after signing a "major" global supply agreement for voice services. The five-year deal sees Tata become BT's primary supplier of International Direct Dial (IDD) and other voice termination services outside BT's own footprint countries.Full-year underlying profit plunged 78% at electrical retailer DSG International as the recession forces consumers to rethink spending. The Currys and PC World owner said it doesn't expect conditions to improve any time this year as it announced an underlying profit before tax of £50.5m for the 52 weeks ended 2 May, down from £225.6m a year ago. Financial software firm Misys has had a pretty decent year, boosting reported revenue by about 40% to £695m, adjusted profit from continuing operations by over 40% and like for like revenue by 3%. Acquisitive legacy software specialist Micro Focus reported a 30.8% rise in full year pre-tax profits but warned that the impact of the recent Compuware acquisition is expected to reduce the overall group margin. Engineering and construction group Costain said trading has continued in line with expectations, helped by some large contracts with blue chip and public sector customers. Engineering firm Keller said it has seen no significant change in its trading or outlook since its interim management statement five weeks ago and that expected results for the full year are still within the range of market expectations. DS Smith saw profits slump in the year as the packaging firm said its results were "significantly affected" by an external environment that worsened as the year progressed. Green energy support services firm Eaga expects full year results to be in line with forecasts and said its prospects for future growth and continued diversification remain encouraging.Clinton Cards has bought 196 Birthdays stores, saving 1,450 jobs, a month after the greetings card firm put the business into administration.Driver, which provides specialist commercial and dispute resolution services to the construction industry, said it expects first half pre-tax profits to remain broadly in line with last year's results after experiencing challenging trading.Insurance broker THB saw profits fall, reflecting the continuing soft market and the impact of interest rate reductions on investment income.Business supplies group office2office said its overall performance since 1 January 2009 is ahead of the comparable period in 2008 and in line with management expectations.Aviation and distribution group John Menzies said it is continuing to benefit from cost-cutting actions and expects profits for the first half to be better than the previous year.EnCore Oil and its fellow owners of the Breagh well are in negotiations to sell a 70% stake in the North Sea gas discovery. EnCore said it intends to sell all of its 15% stake in the Breagh well and adjacent licences.James Latham tumbled after the timber merchant posted a big drop in annual profit, cut its dividend and warned that demand remains weak.